Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 87. . . Romans 8:28

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. Our hostess this week is the introspective and talented MariLynn, who has selected this well known and well loved verse from Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Her challenge is for you to NOT use designer paper, the paper must start out as a solid color.

Our sponsor this week is Clear Dollar Stamps. You can see the rest of the creations by the design team on the home blog here and my design sister Kris used a beautiful strawberry stamp that I didn't know existed before today and now feel the need to own. :) You can also read MariLynn's thoughts on her chosen verse.

What does that verse mean to me? I think there are a lot of ways to interpret it and I have to be careful when I read it. I tend to think of it more in terms of what it does not mean.

God works for the good of those who love him . . . God's eternal view of what is deemed good isn't necessarily the American cultural view of what we would think of as good. I need to leave that word up to God's interpretation.

God works . . . he's not the only one who is to be working. If we are called according to his purpose, then we have a job, a purpose here on earth to fulfill before we go to our eternal home and we need to be busy about doing it. That purpose will differ for everyone, but ultimately our purpose is to bring God glory. So it does not mean God does the work, I sit back and wait for heaven to come along some day. I'll be interested to read the thoughts of the other designers on this verse.

In the meantime, I used last week's sketch from Card Patterns, too late to enter it on their blog, but it helped me figure out what to do on this challenge. I started with white, red and blue paper. Gingham has always been popular but seems to really be making a resurgence; I've seen three stamp companies introduce gingham-style stamps in the past few months, but luckily I purchased a gingham background stamp a long while ago and can play along with this trend.

The image is from Clear Dollar Stamps and I don't know if you can tell from this photo or not, but I put a little strip of glitter on the blue burst behind the sentiment to help it stand out a bit more. If someone is "spoon-tacular" I think they need a little bling!

Thanks for looking. Hope you can play along this week!

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps "Kitchen Clutter", CHF gingham backgrounder, SU retired background (flowers)

Ink: red, black

Paper: red, white, blue

Other: glitter, nestabilities, copics, gingham and other ribbon, scalloped edge die

A few of my roses

We have a wedding coming up very soon, less than 40 days away! (Just ask my daughter!)

For my friends, thought I'd share a few pics from the shower we had last weekend on Saturday. These are my girls!

A Blessed Easter to You!!!!

Happy Sunday stampers! One of the best Sundays of the year!! A blessed Easter to all of you. I hope you are enjoying Easter celebrations with family or church friends. Some time this week, if you get a chance, Stampin' Sisters in Christ is having our weekly challenge and our hostess this week is Rebekka, her chosen verse is Luke 24:46-47 ESV (46) and (Jesus) said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, (47) and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Her challenge is to create an Easter card and it has to be round!~as you can see from the cards by the design team on the home page. Our sponsor is Serendipity Stamps, who is donating a QCL sized cling set of the winner's choice.

I am so filled with joy today and this entire weekend at the tremendous gift Jesus Christ gave to us through his sacrifice on the cross. Good Friday is gone, today we celebrate our Risen Savior, so I chose to make a card as bright and colorful as possible.

Rebekka has some great thoughts to share with you on the home page. I have nothing to add, just joy, joy, joy. He is Risen!!!

Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers
Ink: black, silver craft
Paper: Cosmo Cricket DeLovely, white, blue, green
Other: edge punches, prima flowers

Aqua Dandelion

There was an interesting sketch on splitcoaststampers today, thought I'd give it a try. I combined it with the CR84FN24 challenge to use aqua, light blue and cream. Hard to tell in the photo, there's a touch of glitter on the bee's wings. We've had storms all day, there wasn't any decent light.

Thanks for looking, have a great evening!

Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Happy Pansies (bee and ladybug), Just Dandy
Ink: Ranger ink Vintage Photo, Antique Linen (distressing), Papertrey Ink Aqua
Paper: Cream, Aqua, light blue
Other: PTI impression plates, distressing tool, light blue ribbon, glitter, 3/4" circle punch

Frieda's Spring Garden . . . Card Patterns 111

Happy Tuesday!!! Its snowing~~~I need to go visit my friend in Oklahoma who tells me it is 97 degrees there. :)

I'm creating Spring in my craft room since it will still be a while before we experience it in real life! Frieda is picking flowers and wearing a short dress . . . something I wouldn't dare venture outside in right now. This is for the current sketch at Card Patterns, number 111 I think and for such a simple sketch I found it a challenge! I scrapped I don't know how many ideas for the three elements on the side of the card before I remembered my hat pins from Mark's Finest Papers. I think they kind of match the flower in her hand, what do you think?

Little Frieda there is available for you to win on Card Patterns this week, as The Craft's Meow, a new company started by my dear friend Lisa, is the sponsor! Three Frieda images will go to a lucky winner. And Lisa is also . . . drumroll here . . . giving away ALL of the four new sets being designed by Nina Brackett for her May 1st release as the new designer for The Craft's Meow, actually a complete set of four for every hundred fans of her new facebook page! I love Nina's designs, I'm actually eligible for that giveaway! Click on the link I provided to check it out. Thanks for looking. Hope your Spring weather is treating you more kindly in your part of the world!

Stamps: The Craft's Meow Little Frieda's Daisy
Ink: black
Paper: Prima Fairy Flora, cream, bright pink
Other: copics, MFP hat pins, MS edge punch, paper piercing tool

Challenges:
Card Patterns: Sketch 111
Ladybug Crafts Ink TT Challenge: Anything Goes
Make It Monday: Anything Goes
Kaboodles Doodles: Spring/Easter . . . I was definitely shooting for Spring with this!
By the Cute & Girly: cute and girly

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 85. . . Matthew 16:23

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week's sponsor is Designed to Delight and one randomly selected participant posting their card on the home page will win a $10 gift certificate to that store. I am the hostess this week and I selected this verse from Matthew 16:23 "Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me satan!'" My challenge is for you to create a background on your card using tone on tone, either versamark on cardstock or purple on purple, brown on brown, etc. Please go to the main page for Stampin Sisters in Christ to see the gorgeous creations by the rest of the design team. My devotional is as follows:


Get thee behind me Satan. . .

Interesting choice of words to use with a follower, with a friend. Yet these are the words Jesus used with Peter when Peter pulled Jesus aside to admonish him for in the previous passages laying out the plan of salvation. Now it is true that Jesus would have to suffer and die on the cross and we don’t know the level of Peter’s shock or denial when he heard of this future suffering. We do know the reason Jesus said those words to Peter because of the statement immediately following, “for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

Peter was trying to stand in the way of God’s plans. Lately this passage has been much on my mind, not only because Easter is approaching, but also because of personal challenges to get out of the way and let God’s will work in my life and those of my family members.

As just one example, my son feels led to enter the mission field, specifically feeling called to go to a remote part of the globe to help spread the gospel. I love my son and I’m proud of him for following God’s call. My mother’s heart, however, keys in on the word “remote.” And my vivid imagination has no trouble at all conjuring up poisonous vipers laced in every tree branch just waiting to drop down and bite him. Not to mention wondering when I’d see him again.

That’s just one example of where my quivering jellyfish insides worries about the what ifs, where I’m thinking of my agenda, of “the things of men” rather than being mindful of the things of God.

So what do I need to do? Support him, pray, trust God, and not pluck at my son’s sleeve telling him what a mistake he’s making, the way Peter tried to do with Jesus.

How often do we do that, even just in our thought life? A friend announces their intention to try foster care, to adopt an older child, to start their own business, or to downsize so they can serve the Lord better and what is our response? How often is it negative or instantly filled with doubts, with what-if scenarios? If the Lord truly is calling them to do these things, then our response should be to remember Jesus’ words, “Get thee behind me Satan.” Get out of the way. Let God work. And better yet, get on our knees to pray for their endeavors and look for any ways we can help.

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Thanks for looking and hope you can play along this week.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Turning a New Leaf, Waltzingmouse Stamps (sentiment), Layers of Color (flowers)
Paper: pink pirouette, cream
Ink: versamark, black
Other: ribbon, watercolor brush, reinkers

In the category of exciting news:
Lisa, our dear SSIC sister and owner of a brand new on line store, The Crafts Meow, just announced that the talented Nina Brackett will be designing stamps for The Crafts Meow, and that Alice Wertz and Sarah Martina Parker will be joining TCM as kit designers.

Lisa has created a Facebook Page! For every 100 fans by April 30th, she will be giving away a set of the four new stamp sets that were designed by Nina and will be released on May 1st! So click on over to facebook and become a fan! Thanks Lisa for your generosity!

Design Team Call tryout

There's a new challenge blog opening up, it appears to be quite international and it would be fun to make more friends from around the globe! So I'm tossing my hat in the ring to be chosen as a designer, we'll see what happens! I like the fact the challenges are once every two weeks, that gives you time to think things over and come up with your best work.

Here is a link to their blog and their badge. They ask you to list your three best pieces of work for their consideration. I don't know exactly which three to pick, so I closed my eyes and threw a dart at the computer. (no, not really!)

Here are three that I like for different reasons. Looking forward to the first challenge on May 4th. Best of luck to all who are entering. They're giving away candy too; just leave a comment on their post.



This is a tent card, I haven't made too many of these but I do enjoy them. I also don't use digital images often, but Mo's (image from Mo's Digital Pencil) has such cute things. My printer tends to eat my paper when I try to print digis.




This card brings back special memories of time spent with family at the lake, inspired by a photo of my son walking along the sandy beach at sunset. The colored panel uses a wash of different shades of ranger distress inks to create the sunset look and then I overstamped and embossed the branch images with black craft ink, added a bit of glitter for the sun's reflections on the waves. Despite the amount of work on the panel, I still consider this an example of my CAS work. (image by PTI)



This uses a glitter window or stained glass technique, using different shades of glitter on a stamped image on acetate. So the image is 'colored' with glitter, then you flip it over when you glue it on your layout so the glitter won't rub off. The 'waves' behind the fish is a piece of DP positioned behind the acetate panel. (image by Inkadinkado . . .I think)


Thanks for looking and thanks for the consideration.